---
title: A Brief History of Birth Control in the U.S.
date: 2020-07-08T03:00:00-04:00
author: OBOS Admin
canonical_url: "https://ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/a-brief-history-of-birth-control"
section: Resources
---
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[Health & Sexuality Info](/health-info)# A Brief History of Birth Control in the U.S.

By Our Bodies Ourselves • Last Updated: July 23, 2020

![Birth control clinic, Brooklyn NY, 1916](data:image/png;base64,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)Women waiting outside the first birth control clinic in the U.S., in Brooklyn, NY, October 1916. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress

***Special thanks to Carrie N. Baker and Kirsten Thompson***

People have long tried many methods to prevent pregnancy. These efforts, however, have often been constrained by governments, religious institutions, medical professionals and others seeking to control reproduction by blocking access to contraception and/or coercively imposing it on certain populations. Prior to reliable modern methods of birth control, people relied on withdrawal or periodic abstinence. These methods often failed.

**Around 3000 BCE** Ancient societies, including Crete and Egypt, [**begin developing condoms**](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3649591/) made from animal and fish bladders or intestines and linen sheaths.

**Around 1850 BCE** Egypt develops one of the first spermicides by combining crocodile dung and fermented dough. The low pH of the dung may have had a spermicidal effect.

**1619-1870** Black women draw upon African folk remedies to create medicines that are shared and spread among enslaved populations to resist coerced reproduction by white men.

**1855** The [**first rubber condom**](https://muvs.org/en/topics/pioneers/charles-goodyear-1800-1860-en/) is produced.

**1873** Congress passes the [**Comstock Act**](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-anthony-comstocks-chastity-laws/), which criminalizes using the U.S. Postal Service to mail any obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients, or sex toys and authorizes the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail. The law’s chief proponent and namesake Anthony Comstock becomes a special agent for the U.S. Postal Service to enforce the law. Many states pass similar laws in the following years.

**1907** The United States institutes public policies that give the government the right to sterilize “unwilling and unwitting” people. Indiana enacts the nation’s first compulsory sterilization law in 1907; by 1929, thirty states have similar laws. These laws list the “insane,” the “feeble-minded,” the “dependent,” and the “diseased” as incapable of regulating their own reproductive abilities, therefore justifying government-forced sterilizations. State officials use these laws disproportionately to target Black women, Native American women and poor women and girls.

**1914** Believing that “enforced motherhood is the most complete denial of a woman’s right to life and liberty,” public health nurse Margaret Sanger coins the term “birth control” and begins her decades-long campaign to make contraceptives legal and available to women in America.

**1916** Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The next year, a New York court convicts Sanger of “maintaining a public nuisance” by dispensing contraceptive devices and sentences her to jail for 30 days. Once released, Sanger re-opens her clinic and continues to persevere through more arrests and prosecutions. In 1917, she begins publishing the magazine *Birth Control Review* to educate the public about contraception.

**1918** In the case of [***People v. Sanger***](https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/people-state-new-york-v-margaret-h-sanger-1918), the New York State Court of Appeals reverses the criminal conviction of Margaret Sanger, ruling that New York’s limitations on the distribution of birth control are unconstitutional because they infringe upon women’s liberties by forcing them to conceive more children than they want.

**1918** African American women of the Women’s Political Association of Harlem hold their first public lecture on birth control.

**1920** Margaret Sanger [**publicly states**](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-eugenics-and-birth-control/) that “birth control is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit \[and\] of preventing the birth of defectives.” Despite disagreeing with some of the ideas of the eugenicists, who were part of the mainstream scientific establishment of the day, Sanger [**sought legitimacy**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=BNMy5u4vZo8) for her controversial demand for birth control by aligning with them.

**1921** Sanger founds the American Birth Control League, the precursor of Planned Parenthood, at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City.

**1927** The Supreme Court rules in [***Buck v. Bell***](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/274/200) that coercive sterilization does not violate the U.S. Constitution. To justify the decision, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. infamously says, “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

**1936** The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in [***U.S. v. One Package***](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/86/737/1567252/) rules that the federal Comstock law violates the U.S. Constitution.

**1938** Diaphragms, also known as “womb veils,” become a popular method of birth control.

**1939** By this year, nearly 400 community-based and state-sponsored birth control clinics exist throughout the country.

**1939–1942** Several national groups advocating for birth control join together in 1939 to form the Birth Control Federation of America. In 1942, the organization changes its name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

**1941** The National Council of Negro Women becomes the first national women’s organization to officially endorse the practice of contraception.

**1950** While in her 80s, Sanger organizes support for research to create the first birth control pill.

**1953** Biologists John Rock and Gregory Pincus team up to develop the birth control pill, funded by two million dollars from philanthropist Katharine Dexter McCormick. Because state laws prohibiting contraceptive research made it extremely difficult to set up trials, Rock and Pincus controversially first test the drug on [**male and female patients**](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-boston-pill-trials/) at the Worcester State Psychiatric Hospital in Massachusetts and then on [**poor women in Puerto Rico**](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/).

**1960** The first oral contraceptive, Enovid, a mix of the hormones progesterone and estrogen, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It quickly became known simply as “the Pill.”

**1965** The Supreme Court rules in [***Griswold v. Connecticut***](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/381/479) that married couples have a Constitutional right to privacy that includes the right to use birth control. However, millions of unmarried women are still denied birth control.

**1965** The U.S. Agency for International Development’s population and reproductive health program begins, with the goal of reducing birth rates in developing countries.

**1968** The FDA approves intrauterine devices (IUDs), bringing early versions called the Lippes Loop and Copper 7 to the market. Within a few years, more than 10 percent of women using contraception had IUDs.

**1969** Medical journalist Barbara Seaman’s book, “The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill,” lays out testimony and research showing that the high doses of estrogen in the early Pill put women at risk of blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.

**1970** At well publicized Congressional hearings, feminists challenge the safety of the contraceptive pill. Afterward, hormones in the Pill are lowered to a fraction of the original doses.

**1970** Congress passes [**Title X of the Public Health Service Act**](https://www.hrsa.gov/opa/eligibility-and-registration/specialty-clinics/family-planning/index.html), creating a federal grant program dedicated solely to providing low-income individuals with comprehensive family planning services, including contraceptives, and related preventive health services.

**1970** Toni Cade Bambara’s essay “The Pill: Genocide or Liberation?” calls attention to race and gender controversies surrounding contraception in communities of color.

**1970s** The Indian Health Services sterilizes thousands of Native American women, contributing to a drop in Native women’s average birth rate from 3.7 children in 1970 to 1.8 by 1980. By comparison, white women’s average birth rate was 2.42 in 1970 and 2.14 in 1980.

**1972** The Supreme Court in [***Eisenstadt v. Baird***](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/405/438) legalizes birth control for unmarried people.

**1973** The coercive sterilization of African American sisters Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, aged 14 and 12, spark a [**lawsuit**](https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/d6_legacy_files/Relf_Original_Complaint.pdf)and a national campaign to end sterilization abuse. The [**Committee to End Sterilization Abuse**](https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/forced-sterilization/) (CESA) is founded a year later to combat coercive sterilization of women of color.

**1974** The FDA suspends the sale of the Dalkon Shield IUD after four years on the market, after [**multiple users develop severe infections**](https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/dalkon-shield) and at least seven women die. Although other IUD designs are not implicated, in subsequent years most IUDs are slowly taken off the U.S. market due to the escalating costs of lawsuits.

**1975** Loretta Lynn releases her controversial country music hit “[**The Pill**](https://youtu.be/5xrjIsLmT0c).”

**1978** The Supreme Court in [***Carey v. Population Services***](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/431/678) holds that states cannot constitutionally place any restrictions on the advertisement, sale, and distribution of contraceptives to individuals of any age.

**1979** The Department of Health, Education and Welfare releases new regulations requiring informed consent for sterilization procedures, including a 30-day waiting period.

**1980s** The FDA approves new low-dose hormonal contraceptive pills and a new copper IUD, ParaGard. People become increasingly aware of the Yuzpe regimen for emergency contraception, which entails taking multiple birth control pills within 72 hours of intercourse in order to prevent ovulation.

**1991–1992** The FDA approves Norplant, the first long acting reversible contraception (LARC) in 1991. Surgically implanted as a set of small, soft tubes under the skin of the upper arm, Norplant releases the hormone levonorgestrel, which prevents pregnancy for five years. In 1992, the FDA approves another LARC, Depo Provera, a birth control shot that contains the hormone progestin and is taken every 3 months.

LARCs are lauded because they are highly effective in preventing pregnancy, last for an extended period of time, and once inserted, work without user action. However, like involuntary sterilization, doctors, judges and policymakers have at times [**coercively used LARCs**](https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/2014/06/reproductive-justice-concerns-long-acting-contraception/) against people of color and low-income people, especially teens in urban areas, as well as immigrants and disabled people.

**1993** The FDA approves the first female condom, the FC1, a pouch that is inserted into the vagina before intercourse to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections.

**1998–1999** The FDA approves Preven (in 1998) and Plan B (in 1999), the first brands of emergency contraception that can used after intercourse to prevent pregnancy.

**2000s** Rapid expansion in method availability and improvements in safety and effectiveness lead to the FDA approving a new levonorgestrel-releasing IUD called Mirena in 2000, the hormonal patch Ortho Evra in 2001, the vaginal ring Nuvaring in 2001, a method of transcervical female sterilization called Essure in 2002, a single-rod implant named Implanon in 2006, and an improved female condom FC2 in 2009.

**2002** Wyeth Pharmaceuticals takes the first hormonal implant, Norplant, off the U.S. market because of controversy related to its side effects and risks.

**2006** The FDA approves over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraception Plan B for people aged 18 and over.

**2010** Congress passes the Affordable Care Act, prohibiting sex discrimination in health insurance and requiring coverage of all preventive health care without copays. In 2011, the Obama administration issues regulations defining preventive health care to include coverage of all FDA-approved forms of contraception.

**2010s** The FDA approves a new emergency contraceptive pill called ella in 2010 and a new levonorgestrel-releasing IUD called Skyla in 2013. People increasingly use the copper IUD for emergency contraception.

**2013** The FDA approves over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraception Plan B for people under the age of 18.

**2013** North Carolina creates the [**Office for Justice for Sterilization Victims**](https://ncadmin.nc.gov/about-doa/special-programs/welcome-office-justice-sterilization-victims) to compensate victims of forced sterilization. A year later, Virginia becomes the second state to do so when it creates the [**Victims of Eugenic Sterilization Compensation Program**](http://dbhds.virginia.gov/developmental-services/victimsofeugenics).

**2014** The Supreme Court rules in [***Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores***](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-354) that employers with religious objections can refuse to cover contraception in their health insurance plans.

**2017** The Trump administration expands the religious exemption from the ACA contraceptive mandate to employers of any size, even publicly traded businesses, and adds an exemption for [**moral objections**](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-21852.pdf) of any kind as well.

**2019** The Trump administration imposes a “domestic gag rule” on Title X health care clinics providing contraceptives to low-income women, resulting in a [**fifty percent decrease in the availability** ](https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2020/02/trump-administrations-domestic-gag-rule-has-slashed-title-x-networks-capacity-half)of reproductive health services in communities across the country.

**2020** The Supreme Court in [***Trump v. Pennsylvania***](https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trump-v-pennsylvania/) upheld the Trump administration’s religious and moral exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, blocking access to insurance-covered birth control for tens of thousands of people across the country and disproportionately harming low-income women.

**2022** The Supreme Court in [***Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization***](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf) overturned *Roe v. Wade* (1973) and *Planned Parenthood v. Casey* (1992) arguing that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion. In his concurrence, Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider … *Griswold*,” calling it one of several “demonstrably erroneous decisions.” Thomas is contending that the Supreme Court should reexamine whether people have the right to contraception.

**Today** More research is needed on user-controlled methods that protect against STIs and on birth control for men. Barriers to accessing reliable contraception remain for people worldwide.

![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)Topics

- [ contraception](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/subject-area/contraception)
- [ history & politics of contraception](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/themes/history-politics-of-birth-control)
- [women's health history](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/tags/womens-health-history)

![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)### *Why You Can* **Trust Us** 

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## Medical History of Vibrators

This episode of the Maintenance Phase podcast explores the medical history of vibrators.

![22348606061_6d3bca832a_c](data:image/png;base64,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)

This episode of the Maintenance Phase podcast explores the medical history of vibrators.](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/medical-history-of-vibrators)

[ResourcesRead

## New Monument Honors "Mothers of Gynecology""

Artist Michelle Browder honors Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy and other unnamed enslaved women who suffered as the unwilling subjects of gynecological experiments.

![Michelle Browder e1669842392529 jpg](data:image/png;base64,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)

Artist Michelle Browder honors Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy and other unnamed enslaved women who suffered as the unwilling subjects of gynecological experiments.](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/new-monument-honors-mothers-of-gynecology)

[ResourcesRead

## The Historical Significance of Black Doulas and Midwives

This blog post, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, celebrates the unsung work of African American birth workers, including doulas and midwives.

![Siloam greene county ga vicinity midwife going on a call carrying her kit d977bf 1024 e1687465869116 jpg](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACAAAAAgCAIAAAD8GO2jAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAADsUlEQVRIiW1WW3LkOAwDQPX9DzU/uxdKP2IS80FJtjPppFxdbZsgIPDB//7/Q5KkJEkREVLEmN8UkkiRBPofNmDYOP/Wh5xXop+FANiGva/9+r7M13cQz8stui+wcEfsO8NVIAuQXTZ9/2Bedo4T15h3NsCFR5PpX0ZWEaS4OO6PyEIRoqpM0S0PO3GfiXpjk6BhgrYJGiMzAahoyRENTZJMTiHZopIdmiv3reipXb9BzlcJjOM4AIhUROyn+7DAKbZEeoKdoX8w8DperpQAYnx/fwOQqKqKOJPq0BFh0D5ddMl9Yey0NoMFA4zP5wNAUihrDFddXRiGw6og2bQ64C+muwHwZPB+v0lKlGJU1RjlS5CALGkzuAKcVvt5ABehGgBdYpVZVWd2ZdtRQZWoCwO7+ua2qi9V1mznQY/X60WiS/jxyKxyzdAeLruipLgzsO2qGwXAK+ufAE+QIcUYmY/Hozr1BeGqkqrf8g2gJktMCG4/q4OTxHg+nySlGGPk4y6RXeWIChW1GZzpr4e3TXfu8wvABRDxGI+sXNHPQGNEKtYZ2EbVDH4B8D+NYAF8PZ8kI+J4HFnpOl2xMEYzWBLN3Gvj/M6Ai8HXF8WIkUfrgyXF7HsRFRFLV0x9JoHJ4TcG85TH1/MpccTIzLLhLpHTM2M4MyV1g7wyqKpyuTbAZqAT4PV6khpjZHUnu+F3rIj48csKXfdz/pcBx/P1EjXGsE2Sip5spK4AksjuOpf0l1iz1Ij7ERDgeL/forIKYNdDKCbAJWVtm6JTz18AMJ1zA/h8PpJsiIoYY4weyKt6J0C7qHvsinuSOEWap6CFhHEc2RNTEXEc4/sYcRxxfOubEkhMBuK1zpaL2k7dkVZH3eOJIEdmScqszMojM/PIPI5j6g7ArrL2XjHrr3yqtFvSbHczegNci7bKmZWZR1Zk6sh11JNB83GTcm4XrfayRuzEAMBBEtAcVT4x8shDSbHvyLX2gtkMp01dq69iTcKJsQHWXsVbJ8iqyMypfFgs9SpVXhgboDbActMu1SGFSDJaNQO15api1vQSKC+juowLgPf8aQDufgNzdJVKolqOrdUySpIwQItNcmJ4zaY93QprnVkLTjNoAM0GgnOqVFWxVskQJL3ub/vP2J7C9bs3AE0GK9BcBo2yZZeLFgyVQZgmynPvaGFqLZjXWcIedEPSqj2d+1bb4bae7NVkybBd4zU9sHDnvkQDYw0frl3jspucSxZseNl0w98eum6p3unhL+rk/0US0Ck6AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC)

This blog post, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, celebrates the unsung work of African American birth workers, including doulas and midwives.](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/the-historical-significance-of-black-doulas-and-midwives)

[ResourcesRead

## The Hysterectomy in U.S. History and Today

Article on the history of the hysterectomy as a means of both oppression and liberation.

![uterus-g464208003_1920](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACAAAAAgCAIAAAD8GO2jAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAADe0lEQVRIiXVW27brOAiThM//f3ADmgewk7R7vLLSNjEIiYtL2+hloAqVyMR1IS9kIi9notIu2DBIAKQIChIUUCD6i+YhBbK3Cl/LwIGE7w/vDxsw/LZpq9fDWevX/bYxPAtzLxjg7KRnz0CegAzQAHvz+sP/NnPZVX2hqgEMkITcWARBogxuMBomYBAAHwATiGFju64qVyLTG4CASVocqUhyYMgbo5na6xW/jepAtvfMykSmM7caoMgSI+gRrGFAkW/ReBjc4hRqr0xn1pXOa0jAHSwl2gq3SmSCBOvw4KThMHhkzFXOib2uy33ltQFAihKrXKYhtExFFkRY7KKAHwzwAPDNoDLr+vizAWy2RAqWNYkkKfa9xOYxJLqKHjV+EluZlVddV32u+nzcHWeTIMUolg1rciJJ6GKTYNOwDXDdXXQKvxOcWVfm1RgfX5crUdVyKEJrVLAkCZIUmIbvkEl47T7E0WcKdOcgP5+jUleRJFfZEAEKSiodUS5V92OTsHcnb41mtUo3xlEJZRKWWDYICbqYUVWoUlW3PffA4WtUnJlwp7kzkblrCVUgqFA3tIQIVrIb3raLp4Jgg+t7jPiscrnydMPl64ILINXtpspiTkvyzK0ZQ/8z7J652INo+PREYpebqrJY1XHsaTjFMj32LdGZzo8pPaY1eKgCCJbrEJ09D/M9UgEAfTLgvmOPqTfmDfj1sA34/MXH/VuifsEZkc/dc4l8/uQOdJvs/RyrBtjh82azJ1pfFCkogKmi87C7mHwqQY439HnQhwNxh77XAAQjGAHP8H881IBpXvDw2BjrELx96xG7ghGKwFoGUN1e4lqKYCxGUPGEgbYf8DlNG0Dgdh1BhSK8ljNlG+w+GID1TxFqHjFWkHhnCOTzyGxwkRtDEV7hK7BWGabgIkhJK7SW1mKEYnUom8Sh8MNgJvvxHlGxtBJlgJZQ1TlQhP6txhget6qd9tYKbwbcpSGVdNTvc6YB+jzjZqBOQ7zq7WQCL4nwy0BegVrd/c5zoomxAVYoQg+JoLsn+A2gRr7zLAWi0GOYDUCKTW4neTNow5MA8P2/6KWSKElyBKtUDwZzZEq7RnWr//bOP0bFu9O2GUIdO2xsAIak+MP1e5D8AXDa9fFF0D63iaPhLuuX3z1vxuPPsNtAwE0GIkpmzV/RB0fuSEeYHy//AX9EU1NMW6lqAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC)

Article on the history of the hysterectomy as a means of both oppression and liberation.](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/the-hysterectomy-in-us-history-and-today)